Council disregards staff report saying it would be cheaper and more accurate to use tabulators
Jan 27, 2010 - 01:02 PM
By Jennifer Stone
CLARINGTON -- Votes in October's municipal election will be hand-counted, despite a report from Clarington's clerk indicating use of tabulators would be less expensive and provide more accurate results.
The matter came up for reconsideration Monday and once again, the idea of using the tabulators, which a clerk's report indicated would save about $30,000 and substantially decrease the margin of error, was turned down by council. It's a matter of not being seen to flip-flop on another issue, something for which council has been widely criticized, Councillor Gord Robinson said.
"We have already made a decision on this," he said. "The clerk has already taken direction from council to go forward with a manual count."
Council voted down use of tabulators last October, at the same time as a decision was made to eschew a clerk's department recommendation to move to online voting. The decision also called for the elimination of mail-in balloting, which had been used in Clarington since 2000.
Instead, when Clarington voters go to the polls in October to elect a new council, they will use pencils and paper ballots at polling stations.
But even after the decision was made last fall, some members of council asked for a report detailing the pros and cons of using tabulators.
The report came back indicating the electronic counting equipment would cost about $63,000, but those costs would be about $30,000 less than a manual count, which would necessitate more polling stations and increased staffing. The report also indicated manual counts have shown margins of error of about six per cent --- much higher than tabulators are known to have.
The report prompted the call to revisit the idea but, even with the new information, council voted to stick with the traditional method.
That makes no sense, said Councillor Adrian Foster, noting that by using tabulators, "we would save money and get a better result.
"It seems to me that governments are constantly berated for doing things that cost more and get a worse response."
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